While not currently able to resume any strenuous training,
Taygen Schuelke of Newell is hopeful that continued recovery from
his ruptured kidney suffered in September will allow the senior to
compete for a third consecutive boys’ all-around state rodeo title.
(Journal file photo)

While not currently able to resume any strenuous training,
Taygen Schuelke of Newell is hopeful that continued recovery from
his ruptured kidney suffered in September will allow the senior to
compete for a third consecutive boys’ all-around state rodeo title.
(Journal file photo)

Taygen Schuelke was down, hurt on the ground. But only banged
up, he thought. Had the wind knocked out of him. It’s happened
often enough.

His Newell football coaches had seen it happen, too, both on and
off the gridiron. The senior had lost his sophomore football and
wrestling seasons because of a fractured C7 vertebra in his neck
during a bull riding competition. He wore a neck brace for 17 weeks
and quietly built his strength.

He was sidelined part of this past summer because of a severe
groin pull. Then he suffered an avulsion fracture of his hip in
July during the high school rodeo finals that kept him out until
the second game of the Class 9AA football season. Next, he
dislocated ribs against Harding County. While waiting for all those
wounds to heal, Schuelke was biding his time toward what would
still be a promising Irrigator autumn.

At last, he was back at full strength for Newell’s homecoming
game against Lemmon/McIntosh on Sept. 23. Playing middle
linebacker, Schuelke finished a tackle and was hit by one of his
own teammates on his right side.

Coaches rushed out to Schuelke, who was squirming on the
ground.

“It was 10 yards in front of our bench, visible to all of us,”
Newell coach and athletic director Steve Schoenfish said. “He was
talking but just holding his chest like he’d lost his wind. His
chest was hurting, but he’s a real tough kid. He wanted to play. …
We gave him rib pads, and four or five minutes later he was back in
the game.”

Finish the game Schuelke did, to the tune of a 12-8 victory. But
at a parents’ dinner afterward, what was shaken off as another bump
and bruise quickly set in motion a series of events that shook the
Schuelke family’s sense of calm.

----------

It started when Schuelke saw blood in his urine. He calmly told
Schoenfish the news and still had a measured demeanor.

“I was thinking, ‘OK, it’s a bruised kidney. I’ll sit out a
couple of weeks. It won’t be too bad,’” Schuelke said.

Schuelke and his parents, Darin and Jean, traveled to Sturgis
for a CAT scan. It was discovered that Schuelke’s kidney was
ruptured. The entire situation was becoming more surreal. Then the
prognosis became dangerously serious — Schuelke’s ruptured kidney
was the only one he had.

“It became a panic when they found out I only had one,” he said.
“They were going to fly me out to Sioux Falls. They were thinking
I’d need surgery, and so they had to get me to a specialist.”

“You just don’t expect that,” Jean Schuelke said. “We went to
the hospital thinking it’ll be fine. We just needed to get it
looked at. Not even an hour later, you find out he has one kidney.
What do you do? … There was no reason to know; they said it’s about
a one-in-1,000 chance, and it’s not necessarily hereditary.”

Upon their arrival in Sioux Falls, the shock of the preceding
hours subsided with the first positive news of the night. As long
as the hematoma in the kidney healed normally, no operation would
be needed to repair the kidney.

Not taking any chances because of the importance of the kidney’s
function, doctors had Taygen stay in Sioux Falls for a week. Day by
day, slight improvements came.

He couldn’t do much more than sit up to use the restroom, but
Taygen quickly returned to his sense of calm.

What had briefly rocked his equilibrium wasn’t going to deter
him long.

“Honestly, I wasn’t that nervous about anything. I’ve put my
faith and trust in God, and I knew He’d take care of me,” Taygen
said.

----------

Taygen went home after that week in Sioux Falls, and he remained
there for another week. He was back in school by mid-October and
had been attending school for half a day through the early part of
November. There are obvious limitations.

He can’t complete any weight training, so there’s no preparing
for the fast-approaching wrestling season. His high school football
career had definitely come to an end.

But the community support was just beginning. Schoenfish said a
gun raffle was held within town, and about $3,500 was raised toward
medical expenses. When Newell played at Dupree on Sept. 30, the
home school had a 50/50 raffle and donated all the proceeds to the
Schuelkes.

As might be expected, cards, notes and well wishes were pouring
in. The rodeo community stretches throughout all of South Dakota,
and Schoenfish said the school was flooded with calls for Taygen’s
address.

Consistent with his calm attitude, all the attention was a bit
unsettling for the senior.

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“I didn’t think it was going to be seen as that big a deal,”
Taygen said. “And all of a sudden, all these cards and phone calls
came. It is really nice to know that everyone cares. It’s hard to
thank everyone for what they’ve all done. I guess you see something
like that, and you give back to whoever’s hurt and needs it.”

Even if she was expecting the large response, Jean was still
similarly overwhelmed.

“It makes you realize that there are such good people around
here. It’s so hard to receive and much easier to give. That’s our
nature,” she said. “We’re so thankful. Like Taygen, we don’t feel
like we deserve it. There are so many other people out there who
deserve it and need it much more.”

Taygen’s thankful, too, that the healing process seems to be
going normally. He’s regained some of the weight he’d lost while
recuperating, and his appetite is returning.

“He looks good. He’s got his smile back,” Jean beamed.

----------

Taygen was able to at least be a part of the end of Newell’s
football season, which ended with a playoff loss to
Gettysburg/Hoven. He was encouraging teammates and was vocal on the
sidelines. He said he believes it made the healing process
faster.

“He’s never been one to complain,” Schoenfish said. “He always
has a positive outlook. He was a great leader for our kids — a
great, upbeat kid.”

Taygen could be receiving additional upbeat news. He is
scheduled for a follow-up appointment later this month that could
set a firmer timetable for his return to athletics.

So, someday soon, it’s likely that Taygen Schuelke could be
down, hurt on the ground again after a fall. He could be banged up,
the wind knocked out of him once more. It’s happened often
enough.

But given his toughness, and the injuries he’s already bounced
back from, there’s nothing that’s shaking his belief.

“My faith gets so strong, or a lot stronger, knowing what could
have happened,” he said. “It’s great knowing I’m still alive, that
I’ll hopefully be fine. I’m thankful for everything.”